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Our Brothers’ Keepers

The histories of Judaism and Christianity suggest that words alone won’t pacify Islam. Its transformation will be long and bloody.

By

William Saletan

Oct. 19, 2015 7:14 p.m. ET

From Asia to Africa, Islamic militants are slaughtering fellow Muslims. In Europe, they’re fomenting anti-Semitism. Through the Internet, they’re spreading hatred and winning recruits. We can’t defeat this enemy with weapons, money or liberal platitudes. We need a man of God.

Into this role steps a most unlikely candidate: Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of Britain. Mr. Sacks believes that Islamic violence, like Jewish and Christian violence, flows from a misunderstanding of sacred text. In “Not in God’s Name,” he illuminates...